Hi there! Thank you for stopping by Flawed yet Functional today! Health means more to me than just not being sick or even just eating healthy food. Daily habits are a huge part of maintaining good health. From sleep to exercise, creative outlets to evening routines, how we manage (or don’t manage) our time and activities has a real effect on our health. Today I’d like to share the beauty of waking up early. I know, yuck, am I right? While no one initially likes getting up early, there is many blessings to making this a habit. Let me show you what I’ve learned!

Early to bed

Early to rise

Keeps a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

~Benjamin Franklin

We’ve all heard that quote, right? I’ve found it to be so true in my life. While I could probably go on and on about the things I love about early mornings, I’ve narrowed it down to five. There’s just so much good about getting up early! Let me share my joys with you.

Quiet

I’m an introvert (As are most bloggers, I imagine.) and a stay-at-home mom. Those two combined can lead to one crazy momma if she doesn’t find solitude and a way to recharge. I encourage my kids to be curious. I praise insightful questions, even if I’ve heard it 10 times already. However, constant child chatter is wearing to an introvert.

Nap time used to be my sanctuary. I cherished those breaks in the day and made the most of them by enjoying a hot cup of coffee, reading, and turning on the fireplace. Well, nap time is quickly becoming a thing of the past. My oldest gets one hour of “quiet time” which is not quiet in the least, but he is in his room! So where does my solitude and time of recharge come from these days?

Early mornings. A quiet still house from 5:30am to 7:30am is all mine. No one talks to me. I don’t talk to anyone (except God, but I usually write my prayers theses days so no vocal cords used there!). It is quiet, still bliss.

A fun fact: being awake in the early morning has increased my appreciation of the changing seasons. Some things are more noticeable in the quiet of an early morning:

• Summer – birds are already singing at 5:30!
• Fall – crickets chirping and school buses whirring down the road
• Winter – that heavy silence after a fresh snowfall (you know that silence, right?)
• Spring – rain dripping on the deck and that first robin’s song

Drinking Coffee/Tea While Hot

Being a stay-at-home mom has it’s advantages and disadvantages, and I chose to embrace them both. One disadvantage is it is difficult to drink a full mug of coffee or tea while still hot. Can I get a witness up in here??? Interruptions are constant through my day. While I’ve learned to embrace this (I refuse to be bitter about not enjoying a hot drink. I’ve been there in my life, and it’s not a pretty place to be.), I carve out part of my early morning to enjoy one entire mug of hot tea. The whole cup, hot the whole time, and finished before anyone else wakes up.

I love my hot drinks so much, the first thing I do when I come downstairs is start the kettle. When my tea is ready, I sit down to spend some time in God’s word and enjoy my hot tea. Hot tea and time with my Savior, there’s nothing better.

Time to Make Good Food

A common question I get is “how do you find time to make all that food??” There are many ways I squeeze cooking into my day, but one key piece is get up early. If I’m up early, I have time to roast vegetables for breakfast. Sack lunches are much more nutritious when I have time to think through what I’m packing.

Getting up early allows me to prepare nutritious food for breakfast for the whole family, a healthy sack lunch for my husband (and sometimes the kids and me too depending on the activities for the day), and even pull out meat or just thinking through what I’m doing for dinner. What a start to the day!

Head-start on Daily Chores

Now don’t think I get the whole house cleaned in the morning! I actually do very little cleaning, but remember back in this post where I mentioned using the delay start on my washer in the evenings? Well, I time it so that sometime in the 5 or 6 o’clock hour the wash is done and I toss it in the dryer. Usually, the load is washed and dried by breakfast time (8:00am). Ideally, it gets folded and put away sometime that morning, but I still need a lot of work in that area! I usually let it sit in the dryer for a while!

Exercise (Uninterrupted)

Thirty to forty minutes of my morning routine are reserved for exercise. I’ve tried to work-out when my kids are up, but there’s always an argument that needs intervention or assistance at the toilet (Just telling it like it is, folks!). The quality of exercise is so much better if I do it when my children aren’t around, and my consistency is better too!

If sticking to an exercise routine is hard for you, I recommend wrapping it into a larger routine in the morning or evening when other duties haven’t started or are finished.

These are my top 5 reasons why I love getting up early. The list began with “Quiet” because my soul desperately needs quiet, and early mornings are the best way for me to get it. Does your soul need quiet too? All of these combined start me off on the right foot for the day. I begin the day refreshed, recharged and ready to face the day.

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Do you get up early? What do you love about an early morning?